a family is a circle of love, not broken by a loss, but made stronger
by AndiKaneUnderwood
Summary: When the landmine clicked, Lou was not afraid. He wasn't afraid for himself, that was.


a family is a circle of love, not broken by a loss, but made stronger by memories

By: AndiKaneUnderwood

**AU: Powers(1)**

**Slight OOC warning.**

_Gregory "Greg" Parker (Sensor): Power Augmentation_

_Ed Lane (Super): Invulnerability_

_Julianna "Jules" Callaghan (Firecracker): Fire breathing_

_Sam Braddock (Psy): Telepathy_

_Mike "Spike" Scarlatti (IED): Self-Detonation_

_Kevin "Wordy" Wordsworth (Forensic): Superhuman Tracking_

_Lewis "Lou" Young (Atmos): Water breathing_

When the landmine clicked, Lou was not afraid.

He wasn't afraid for _himself_ that was.

No, he was afraid for Spike and Sam and Boss and Ed and Wordy and Jules.

He wasn't afraid of dying here, he was afraid that they would become destructive. He'd had a friend once, in school, who had witnessed the death of a brother.

Lou couldn't speak for the team, but he figured that it was a mutual feeling of family.

He didn't want the others to become destructive people who destroyed others as Antony had.

So, even though Spike was so damned dead-set on the water, on the weight transfer, Lou waited until Spike had left and then called the parents.

After he got off the phone, he closed his eyes and let himself feel.

For a moment, he was actually afraid. Then it drained away into acceptance.

He wasn't the most powerful on the team; that position belonged to their favorite rookie.

He didn't was to die, but if he had to, then at least it was with a bang.

It was with no fear that he called out to Spike over the radio and told him that everything would be okay.

It was with relief that no one else would be harmed that he lifted his weight off the landmine.

It was with pride that he laid down his life so his family could be free.

_Flashpoint~Flashpoint~Flashpoint_

Greg could feel every bit of power that surrounded him every moment of every day.

At times when it got rough, he was grateful his son had inherited his mother's genes and not his.

He used to hate that he could feel it all, but most days it was a blessing.

But on days he wanted more than anything to turn it off, it was a curse to not be able to flip a switch and shut his powers down.

Like now, when he could feel every single speck of power rolling off of every single one of his team.

Greg could feel the heat of Jules' fire coming from her breath, little flickers of flame rolling out with every exhale. He could feel the sharpness of Wordy's aura, the tendrils that had latched on to the team so he knew they were okay. He could feel the stone-like make-up of Ed's entire being, the hard exterior of his skin and the strength in his hands. He could feel the presence of Sam, the slightest of pressures in his head like he was afraid of taking up too much space. He could feel the chemical combination of Spike, the popping and crackling that was always going on all over his skin. He could feel the intensity of Lou's water breathing, the way there was always a water-like rattle in his lungs.

Greg had felt it when the intensity had stopped, then stuttered, then flickered out. He'd felt it when Ed's stone had shuddered in unrest. He'd felt it when Jules' heat went cold. He'd felt it when Spike's chemicals lost all their spark. He'd felt it when the Wordy's sharpness went dull. He'd felt it when Sam's presence had retreated.

Greg wanted so badly to comfort all of them, but right now he needed to focus on the one who needed him most. Much as he loathed to admit it, he couldn't protect them from this.

So, Greg knelt down next to the boy with the chemical combustion skin and pulled him close. Greg felt the way Spike curled into him, fisted hands hanging on to his shirt for dear life.

He looked up and met Ed's eyes. Ed's eyes flicked to where Sam was retreating off the scene and then back to Greg, a question flooding through his entire body. Ed knew well that Wordy would have Jules and Greg had Spike covered. Sam had no one. Greg could practically see the Team Leader shaking with the need to go after the rookie.

Greg nodded and turned his attention back to Spike, who was still gripping his shirt as if his life depended on it.

Spike was sobbing hard and Greg feared he'd be sick from it.

Not that Spike wouldn't be sick after this; everyone would.

Greg sighed as he continued comforting the crying man.

He wished it hadn't come to this.

_Flashpoint~Flashpoint~Flashpoint_

Jules had spent a lifetime looking down the scope of a gun.

Her gun was safety in some ways and a curse in others. Her gun meant she could keep her team safe. When she had a gun in her hand, she was protecting people. But it also meant she was hurting others; that a father may not see his kids again, that a wife may not kiss her husband again, a child may never go home. It meant that she may have to kill.

She didn't have a gun in her hand the day that Lewis Young was killed protecting people who couldn't protect themselves. She didn't have a gun in her hands and it killed her that she couldn't protect him.

She wanted to be able to.

None of their abilities could help them. Lou could breathe underwater, but that wouldn't help if he was on fire. Ed had indestructible skin, but he couldn't transfer it to anyone else. Boss had the power to strengthen or weaken another person's power, but that wouldn't do anything against the bomb. Wordy could track people down with just a glance around him, but that did nothing when they knew exactly where Lou was. Spike could self-destruct, never at any danger to himself, but there was already a bomb they had to worry about. She could breathe fire, but that would barbeque Lou just as fast as the bomb would. And Sam. Oh, Sam could read minds, he could communicate between them, but his amazing mind couldn't stop that landmine from going off.

Their powers couldn't help them here. And that scared her more than anything else.

She prayed they could get out of this safely, all of them, but somewhere deep inside she knew that Lou wasn't getting out.

Sam knew it too, he'd been in Afghanistan, he'd seen these bombs and almost been blown up by them too many time to not know what would happen.

The explosion was horrific. She saw the whole thing. She felt her entire body go cold.

She covered her mouth, shaking her head, denying his death. Denial seemed to be her last defense.

Her gun wasn't in her hand. She couldn't protect anyone now.

_Flashpoint~Flashpoint~Flashpoint_

Wordy had known Lou for a long time.

He'd taken care of Lou that one time he'd gotten into a fight with their suspect. He'd held Lou while he cried when they couldn't save someone. He'd helped him through hangovers, heartbreak, and hard times. He'd watched as he and Spike grew closer and closer until he wasn't quite sure friends was the best way to describe them. He'd seen Lou bring back up and less lethal to a fight.

Lou was just a precious to him as his kids were, the entire team was, but it seemed like this would be the end of things.

He agreed with Jules that they gave Spike a chance, but he also agreed with Sam that they get Spike out soon.

Wordy didn't want to lose a friend. He didn't want to lose anyone else. It seemed that fate had other plans.

He refused the look at the explosion, refused to put himself through that with Lou's body on the line.

Wordy wrapped his arms around Jules, who'd been unable to look away. The tears in her eyes perfectly matched his own.

Wordy could track people down, suspects, his team, innocents. But what good would that do? He knew where Lou was, he knew very well where Lou was. His abilities only worked on living objects; humans, animals, plants, on occasion with lightning and fire.

He couldn't help Lou with this. He didn't know how; he didn't have that skill set.

So what was he supposed to do? He wanted to do something, wanted to go out there and help somehow, but what good would it do. Then they'd be grieving two people instead of one.

He didn't want to lose _anyone_ today when they'd already lost their suspect and they couldn't get the justice that Lou deserved. Not when there was a young girl who would live in regret forever for something that wasn't her fault. Not when the man who's done this was already dead. Not when all they could was let him go.

_Flashpoint~Flashpoint~Flashpoint_

Ed was not a bomb technician. Ed was not a person who could help Lou get off that god-forsaken plate. Ed was not able to help here. Ed was an army man, he could shot a subject and feel guilty about it but know it was the right thing to do. Ed was a family man, he was very proud of both of his families. He was _so_ proud of Lou.

Lou wasn't an aggressive person, so Ed usually put him on non-lethal. No one had ever had a problem with it before.

It had never been a problem before because Lou could get aggressive if he needed to. Lou knew what he was doing, he was good at his job, and he wanted to learn _more_.

So Spike had started to show him how to work with bombs.

Each of the others offered to show him something, Greg had offered to show him how to be a Sergeant, Ed had offered to show him how to be Team Leader, Wordy had offered to give tracking advice, Jules had offered to show him how to profile, and Sam had offered a few times to show him how to be a sniper, but Lou had chosen Spike to teach him how to defuse bombs.

Ed was proud to have Lou in his team. He was so happy to have met and gotten to know him. Now he may lose him.

But he compartmentalized his feelings to unpack later when he was safe in his own home.

The team would all need someone after this loss.

Wordy had Jules, he could take care of her like he had after she lost her first subject. The Boss had Spike, who would need him the most after he lost one of his best friends. Sam didn't have anyone he could go home to who would help him out, he stated multiple times that his father was an inadequate caretaker. So, the job would be happily taken up by Ed.

Ed had helped many people through the first few hours of a loss. He'd found that some people would get mad, or scream, or deny. A lot of people just shut down. Sam seemed to be one of those kinds of people that did both. Ed would do his best to help the young soldier through what he could, but PTSD was something that could come out of this.

It wasn't until after he went home that Ed allowed himself to feel everything that happened.

He couldn't believe it.

He wished it where different.

As he normally did, Ed checked every door and window before he sat down at the table and sighed, placing his head in his hands. The anger he felt at the injustice done would hit him in the morning when the team showed up to SRU and he got them started on their work out. He'd drive them harder than normal, but they wouldn't complain, it would be a distraction for them and he wouldn't deny them that.

Right now, however, all he could feel was the sorrow sitting heavy on his chest, the denial still wrapping around his brain.

When he closed his eyes, all he could see was Lou flying up in the air and coming back down and Spike falling to his knees with a scream pouring through his lips and the horrified faces of the rest of the team as the loss of their family hit them hard.

All he could see was the pain in Spike's sobs and the horror in Wordy's eyes and the sadness in the Boss' gaze and the denial in Jules' shock and the blankness in Sam's retreat.

All he could see was the cracks the rest of the world would gloss over and the anger that he'd have to soothe.

All he could see was how he'd _failed_ to keep the team safe and how he would pay for it when it came time to choose someone new.

_Flashpoint~Flashpoint~Flashpoint_

Sam had been taught the first 18 years of his life that emotion was a weakness. Any and all emotions he'd ever shown were burned away in the face of his father's fiery wrath.

Sam hadn't ever had a stable support system to fall back on when the world blew up around him. In Afghanistan, he'd met Matt and Ben and both had helped him a lot. Then Sam had been cleared to shoot and Matt had been one of the kills he'd made.

The JTF2 had shown him much of the world around him, but they also fostered a deep-seated trust issue he hadn't had for anyone except his father, made only worse after he'd ended up with a rifle in his hands and one of his only friends dead 2 kilometers away. The word crumble around him for the second time. After that, Sam was never really the same, but it wasn't made any better when the same happened to Ben the second tour Sam had signed for. Sam left the army after it became quite clear that the others in his unit were distrustful.

He went to SRU hoping to do some good and he would've been happy going through procedure the normal way, letting the team pick him out because they thought he was right for them, but his father didn't share the same idea and fast-tracked his application.

Sam was done apologizing for his father. Instead, he apologized to the team that they didn't get to do things the normal way.

Lou was one of the first people who'd connected with him, only second to Spike. They'd both shown him how to help out the best way. They'd done their best to help him with negotiation, but connecting with people wasn't the easiest thing in the world for the soldier who'd left so he could run from his own connections. They bought him the first round on the first successful negotiation he'd lead.

Lou was the first one he'd told about his telepathy. It wasn't something he'd wanted, no one had asked him if he wanted to be able to hear people scream in his head 24/7. No had given him the manual on how to keep tightly reigned control so people didn't know he was there. His telepathy caused too many problems in his life for him to let it loose on others.

Lou had sympathized. He didn't have it as bad, but the water-like rattle in his lungs spoke of the extra protections he'd always needed to keep up with and he also hated how bad it was to maintain his power. Lou had told Sam that everyone on Team One had some kind of power, not asking once why his personnel file didn't inform anyone of his telepathy(2). When Sam had finally been okay with telling the rest, Lou was right there by his side to help him if needed.

Sam was one of the most powerful people in this world and no one questioned it once, but the others on the Team were some of the only people who accepted him as he was.

So, when he told them, they'd asked about safety rather than if he spent time spying on their personal thoughts. They asked if he had to use it in order to be healthy instead of yelling at him for not telling them in the first place. Spike asked how it worked, Jules informed him that she thought it was fitting, Wordy advised him to be careful around the subjects with it, Ed had nodded his acceptance, Greg told him that he was happy Sam felt he could trust them with this closely guarded secret he'd been keeping. Lou was right there with him through it all.

Sam had shyly asked if the team would be okay with him connecting them all in his mind, so he could know they were safe even if he couldn't see them.

They were ecstatic when they sad yes.

So, Sam had connected them, reaching out for Jules' mind first (_silver and a brimstone fire, a bedroom full of pictures of loved ones, of him_), then Spike (_magenta and a bubbly chemical-like bounce, an Italian home full of echoing whispers of his family_), then Ed (_blue and gunmetal, a hunting path full of blessed silence_), then Wordy (_yellow and a sunny sky, a family room with imprints of his wife, his kids, his team all around the room_), the Boss (_green and stars, the room Team One debriefed in_), and finally Lou _(orange__ and a calm pond, a picture of a girl, the Team around him_).

Sam had felt it when the connection between him and Lou had snapped. He'd felt it as the tie he'd used to secure the bond between their minds had come undone and the fragile bond had snapped. Sam was transported back to the desert, to the scope of a gun and a single shot, the feeling of a different tie snapping as the person in front of the shot fell to the ground.

Sam had retreated with tears in his eyes, knowing that Lou was gone, and there wasn't anything he could do about it.

Ed had come along almost twenty minutes later with promises that it wasn't his fault. He'd spoken to Sam like a soldier, something Sam would forever appreciate because civilian terms weren't something he could currently comprehend.

Sam was a soldier, he fell in line when the time came. He wouldn't question order when they came, he'd obey without thinking.

But all the time in the world couldn't fix things when Lou was gone and Sam was sobbing and the world was crashing down again.

(1) So, if you read my other fanfictions, then this kind of makes sense to you, but for those of you who haven't, here is how it goes. The possibilities for "superheroes" have always existed, people had carried the genes for decades. Somewhere around the Great Depression, history began to record people with abilities no one should have. The world evolved to accommodate this new order and special developments where made. Everyone is classified, prisons where updated, special objects where made. All the good stuff. SRU had mostly Powered people, sometimes you'll have one or two that aren't, Donna was (persuasion) and Leah was not.

(2) My headcanon is that Sam's father, in this universe at least, wasn't expecting to have a Powered person for a son, Sam's the first one in almost thirty years that has powers so his father wasn't equipped to deal with them. Therefore, the General would punish Sam every time he even suspected that Sam was in his head (which is why he's so hesitant about it). He also pulled a lot of strings to ensure Sam's power stayed out of his files. Sam didn't speak about his powers at home and the only time he ever got to use them was when his father wasn't home and his mother allowed him to roam around her head so he'd stay healthy.


End file.
